The T5 has plenty of wallop – enough to spin its Michelins through first gear and chirp the tyres when shifting into second. That’s fairly aggressive behaviour from an automatic hatchback with traction control switched on.

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Volvo’s V40 chief, Hakan Abrahamsson, says the brand was very deliberate in its calibration of the automatic’s behaviour.

“We put the effort in to have it that way,” Abrahamsson says.

“That is what I thought was a good feature to have - a sport mode that is really sporty.”

Abrahamsson’s team put a lot of effort into programming the auto’s sport mode to slam through the gears like The Stig on a hot lap.

The car is not available with a manual gearbox, and paddle shifters are absent from the conventional automatic transmission, which instead has a lever that can used in a sports or manual mode.

There’s room in the back seat for adults, and the car can be sold with a $5000 option pack that brings state-of-the-art technology which can read roadside speed signs and help steer errant drivers back into their lane. Volvo has sprinkled Scandinavian quirk throughout the car, which could not be mistaken for anything other than a Volvo.

The five-cylinder motor is loaded with character – it sounds unlike any other hot hatch and will keep up with rivals between bends.

But the car’s dynamics aren’t on par with the best performance hatches. It has pronounced torque steer on heavy throttle applications, and its suspension can lack finesse.

It lacks the agility of premium sport hatchbacks, but that won’t matter to many buyers.

The V40 T5 is a car that makes most sense driven within its limits as a well-muscled luxury hatch rather than the 250km/h rocket its specification sheet alludes to.

It’s more Liam Neeson than Jean Claude Van Damme, a balanced luxury five-door that can punch when pushed rather than a street fighter bred for brawling.

Update: The original version of this story said the car’s wheel ‘‘our test example ‘‘rubbed against the inside of its wheel guards when the suspension was loaded up through a long, fast corner’’. Volvo examined the car and says this was not the case, and that a momentary chafing vibration during hard cornering was ‘‘more likely to be the lower air diffuser rubbing on the ground’’.

69 comments so far

Thanks for the write up. Are you expecting comments back from Volvo on the tyre rubbing? Also, how did you find the down shifting? Swift enough?

Commenter

Douglas

Location

Sydney

Date and time

February 19, 2013, 11:51PM

Rubbing guards? Sounds truly half baked...

Commenter

Omni

Location

Date and time

February 21, 2013, 12:54AM

Volvo says the tyre was not rubbing on the guards, and that what I experienced was bodywork rubbing onto the ground. I ran this by a couple of chassis experts outside Drive, and they agreed that this was the most likely explanation. I've updated the story to reflect this.

Commenter

David McCowen

Location

Date and time

February 21, 2013, 3:51PM

...but is body work rubbing the ground an acceptable attribute either?, is it common on such tests?

It's something you might expect on a waist high mid engined hyper exotic?, maybe..but a practical family hot hatch???

Commenter

Seats and a steering wheel

Location

Date and time

February 22, 2013, 8:08AM

Nice colour, but.... "The car is not available with a manual gearbox". Not a sports car then is it!

Commenter

David

Location

Date and time

February 20, 2013, 7:55AM

Hello have you had a look at the batch of supercars out there now, Lambos and Ferraris are autos in a fancy fashion but still autos.

Commenter

anon

Location

Date and time

February 20, 2013, 8:39AM

They are not autos, they are clutchless manuals; there is no torque converter in those gearboxes.

Commenter

anon

Location

Date and time

February 20, 2013, 9:50AM

Yes, but I'll never afford a Lambo/Ferrari so don't really care. However these cars may be on my radar and I (like many) still enjoy driving a manual. It was a key factor in my latest vehicle purchase. I know the marketing/account types that run car companies these day don't care for manuals, but some of us do.

Commenter

David

Location

Date and time

February 20, 2013, 9:51AM

Volvo know that the majority of their drivers have trouble doing the simplest of tasks such as reversing or going around a roundabout let alone concentrating on changing gears manually. Its a safety measure, that's what Volvo are know for.

Commenter

James

Location

Date and time

February 20, 2013, 1:39PM

and what about the S40, are we not getting offered the attractive sedan?